Hi GZ,
I've given your views some thought but, even with the
example of Iraq, I'm still not persuaded that "surgical"
bombing can solve this problem.
When I think back over the events of the Iraq war, I'm
not sure that surgical bombing alone was effective in
stopping the aggressor. What I remember is that the
role of the surgical bombing was to disrupt Iraq's command
and control capability and to take out its air defenses.
After this was concluded, I believe that Iraq still remained
entreched in Kuwait. What it did do was facilitate the
next phase of the war. What came next was a carpet bombing
of Iraqi troop positions by heavy bombers. Far from being
surgical, this bombing took the lives of over 100,000 Iraqi
soldiers, as far as I remember. For some reason, this event,
while reported, did not get the same daily video coverage as
the surgical strikes. This may be why the surgical strikes
are more prominent in people's memories and may be more
closely associated with what the war in Iraq was all about.
Even this carpet bombing was not sufficient to "liberate"
Kuwait. (I say liberate because I don't know a word for when
you put a king back on his throne.)
The next phase was a ground invasion. This was what finally
caused the Iraqi soldiers to retreat. I do remember the
comical images of the Iraqi soldiers surrendering on TV and the
somewhat less funny pictures of the soldiers who were killed
while fleeing from Kuwait city.
Based on the events in Iraq, a few things trouble me:
We are now surgically bombing Serbia. Since this hasn't been
sufficient in the past, what will come next? It seems likely
that this phase, far from being used to cause Serbia to relent,
is really designed to clear the skies for the heavy bombers.
Where will the Serbian soldiers flee to? We are bombing them
in their own small country. Will we have to kill them all?
How will we guarantee the safety of the Albanians. If you
remember, shortly after the war in Iraq was "over", thousands
of ethnic Kurds were slaughtered by Sadam Hussain. At the
time, we didn't see fit to resume surgical bombing as a way
to stop that.
Thanks for being willing to share your views; you gave me some
things to think about although I remain unpersuaded.
Dave |
